A Study of New Tourism Products from the Perspective of the Sharing Economy: A Case Study of Homestay Platforms

Abstract

The sharing economy is deeply integrated with tourism. As a typical form of sharing economy, homestay platforms play an important role in the tourism industry. From the perspective of the sharing economy, this paper analyzes the differences between homestay platforms and traditional tourism products. It discusses the characteristics of new tourism products, the types of tourism demand, innovation in operation models, and their impact. This paper also analyzes the development status of homestay platforms in China and puts forward the opportunities and challenges faced by the development of homestay platforms. Firstly, the new tourism products produced by homestay platforms have characteristics such as customization, authenticity, and immersion. Customization meets personalized needs. Authenticity provides real-life experiences. Immersion enables in-depth cultural experiences. Secondly, homestay platforms mainly meet the experiential tourism demands of new-generation consumers, including experience demands, social demands, and self-fulfillment demands. Finally, homestay platforms have achieved the transformation of transaction scenarios from offline to online, realized the collaborative supply of individuals and enterprises, and broken the middle level. This has reduced transaction costs and improved service efficiency and convenience.